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An Unexpected Journey for One Central New York Athlete An Unexpected Journey for a LeMoyne College Men's Basketball Player

By Joseph Trently

(SOT 1) – Lonnie

(“Being able to play this sport, my main thing was trying to help my mother, and everybody in my family, trying to help them out. With me not being a burden to them and having to pay for college or anything like that.”)

(Track 1) – Joe
As you can see, basketball is more than just a sport for Lonnie Rivera, a graduate transfer on the LeMoyne College men’s basketball team. It is an opportunity for him to help out his family. Lonnie started out his playing days at American University in Washington D.C., but then transferred to Wagner College in New York, for reasons more important than just basketball.

(SOT 2) – Lonnie

(“My grandfather was sick, he was going through things. My mother, she was one of the only people that was taking care of him so, I felt that I kind of left her out where she has two other kids that she has to take care of.”)

(Track 2) – Joe

On top of worrying about his family, Lonnie experienced an unexpected setback while at Wagner. He suffered a stress fracture in his foot just a few games into the season, which held him out the rest of the year, and began to make him think what life after basketball might entail.

(SOT 3) – Lonnie

(“It kind of made me re-evaluate life. Kind of think about what’s important to me. Kind of think about what other things I want to pursue.”)

**Live Standup** – Joe

(“Lonnie says this whole process has taught him to appreciate life after basketball, but he also appreciates the fact that he’s still going to be able to put the ball in the back of this net, one last time this season.”)

(Track 3) – Joe
Oshea Gairey is a teammate of Lonnie’s at LeMoyne. He says it’s not only his physical ability that will help their team, but also what he brings off the court as well. {*** SOT FULL ***}

(SOT 4) – Oshea

(“He’s a vocal person and he’s unselfish, so when you have those type of characteristics about yourself, then it’s an easy process for him coming to a new team.”)

(Track 4) – Joe

To give you a perspective of the relationship Lonnie has built with his teammates, Gairey had this to say…

(SOT 5) – Oshea

(“I mean he’s a little goofball. He’s a big-little goofball, that’s what he is.”)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)- People may think the average life of a collegiate athlete consists of two things, school and the respective sport they play. That is not the case for LeMoyne College men’s basketball player, Lonnie Rivera.

Lonnie started his college basketball career at American University in Washington D.C. After his first two seasons there, he decided to transfer to Wagner College, but he didn’t transfer for the reason some might think.

The bottom line was, Lonnie wanted to be closer to his family. His grandfather was sick, and going through some health problems, and his mother was the only one around to take care of him. With two siblings, Lonnie felt it was in his best interest to transfer to Wagner College in order to help his mother in taking care of his family.

“I felt like I needed to go home,” Rivera said. “My mother has two other kids she has to worry about besides my grandfather, so I felt I had to take some responsibility in order to help out my family in any way I could.”

After transferring to Wagner, Lonnie had high hopes of not only helping out his family, but also continuing to pursue basketball. Unfortunately, Lonnie had a major setback after suffering a stress fracture in his foot, which kept him out the rest of the season. However, he looked at the injury from a different perspective than most college athletes would.

“Overall, I think it was for the better of me,” Rivera said. “I learned a lot about myself  and who I want to be outside of the game.”

This injury really woke Rivera up, and he even started to really focus on his school work more than basketball.

“I started taking school a lot more serious,” Rivera said. “Going to all of my classes, actually paying attention, trying to take in as much as I can.”

When asked on whether he still thinks about the injury or not, Rivera had this to say…

“Definitely. All of the time,” Rivera said. “I still get those signs in the back of my head like, you know I’m just one injury away from never playing this game again.”

Lonnie Rivera at Ted Grant Court

Transferring is tough on an athlete. It’s just like moving to a different school in grade school, forming a whole new start from the people you’ve already built relationships with at your old school.

“I’ve just seen an outgoing brother,” LeMoyne teammate Oshea Gairey said. “We’ve built a lot of chemistry over the first couple weeks of school, and over the first few months of the pre-season. The season, now getting into practices, we’ve built a good strong relationship.”

Rivera brings many positives to a LeMoyne squad that finished first in their division last year in the Northeast-10 Conference.

“He’s a very versatile player,” Gairey said. “With his 6 foot, 6 inch frame, he can really stretch the floor and do a lot of positive things for us that we didn’t have last year.”

Rivera is very composed, and feels comfortable already within the LeMoyne system.

“I feel like, if I come in and just do my job, I can help keep the reputation here going,” Rivera said. “I think us winning is just going to make everything go a lot better.”

Rivera did have some advice to give to any collegiate athletes who might be experiencing the same thing that he experienced.

“Find multiple things you’re passionate about,” Rivera said. “My issue was, you know growing up it’s just been literally basketball. That’s all I’ve been preached to. You know guys saw that I was tall, so it was always like, Lonnie the basketball player.”

 

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